Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday formed a panel comprising the prime minister, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or leader of the largest opposition party in the House and the Chief Justice of India to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.
A five-judge bench comprising Justices K M Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar said the panel will be in force till Parliament enacts a law on the appointments. Observing that the “ballot, is more potent than the most powerful gun”, the bench said the “purity of election must be maintained or else it would lead to disastrous consequences” in a democracy.
So, the Election Commission needs to be independent and fully insulated from any external or internal disrupting environment, it said. The 289-page ruling authored by Justice Joseph noted that the scene in the country today is not what it was in the years immediately after the country became a Republic.
“Criminalisation of politics, a huge surge in the influence of money power, the role of certain sections of the media where they appear to have forgotten their invaluable role and have turned unashamedly partisan, call for the unavoidable and unpostponable filling up of the vacuum,” the ruling said.
“The impact of big money and its power to influence elections, the influence of certain sections of media, makes it also absolutely imperative that the appointment of the Election Commission, which has been declared by this court to be the guardian of the citizenry and its fundamental rights, becomes a matter, which cannot be postponed further,” it said.
Justice Ajay Rastogi, in his separate, but concurring 89-page ruling said decisions taken by the Election Commission need to win the trust of the people. He warned that if the Election Commission starts making decisions arbitrarily, it could lead people to think that the democratic process in in the country is being corrupted.
‘No place for those who bow to power’
In its lead judgment, the Supreme Court said a person, who is “weak-kneed before the powers that be”, cannot be appointed as an Election Commissioner
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday formed a panel comprising the prime minister, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or leader of the largest opposition party in the House and the Chief Justice of India to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.
A five-judge bench comprising Justices K M Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar said the panel will be in force till Parliament enacts a law on the appointments. Observing that the “ballot, is more potent than the most powerful gun”, the bench said the “purity of election must be maintained or else it would lead to disastrous consequences” in a democracy.
So, the Election Commission needs to be independent and fully insulated from any external or internal disrupting environment, it said. The 289-page ruling authored by Justice Joseph noted that the scene in the country today is not what it was in the years immediately after the country became a Republic. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
“Criminalisation of politics, a huge surge in the influence of money power, the role of certain sections of the media where they appear to have forgotten their invaluable role and have turned unashamedly partisan, call for the unavoidable and unpostponable filling up of the vacuum,” the ruling said.
“The impact of big money and its power to influence elections, the influence of certain sections of media, makes it also absolutely imperative that the appointment of the Election Commission, which has been declared by this court to be the guardian of the citizenry and its fundamental rights, becomes a matter, which cannot be postponed further,” it said.
Justice Ajay Rastogi, in his separate, but concurring 89-page ruling said decisions taken by the Election Commission need to win the trust of the people. He warned that if the Election Commission starts making decisions arbitrarily, it could lead people to think that the democratic process in in the country is being corrupted.
‘No place for those who bow to power’
In its lead judgment, the Supreme Court said a person, who is “weak-kneed before the powers that be”, cannot be appointed as an Election Commissioner
